


An island of time

by TonicHoliday



Category: 17776: What Football Will Look Like in the Future - Jon Bois
Genre: Drabble Sequence, Gen, Immortality, Memory, Tornadoes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-17
Updated: 2020-07-17
Packaged: 2021-03-04 22:31:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 400
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25340164
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TonicHoliday/pseuds/TonicHoliday
Summary: Everyone on Earth has explored, well, everywhere on Earth. There isn’t one square-inch a human hasn’t stepped on. Nancy would’ve visited here. She’ll visit again.
Comments: 18
Kudos: 34
Collections: Multifandom Drabble 2020





	An island of time

**Author's Note:**

  * For [theladyscribe](https://archiveofourown.org/users/theladyscribe/gifts).



Being tossed like a ragdoll by tornado winds doesn’t hurt. The nanos see to that. They can’t halt weather systems—though they’re probably trying, right now, to slow this thing down—but they ensure Nancy remains unharmed, allow the wind to carry her wherever it chooses.

She’s deposited in water, a lake, beside an island no more than ten yards across comprising of silt, pebbles, and a single tree. Remarkably, she’s never seen the island before, and if she has, she’s forgotten.

Dragging herself and the football up the island’s bank, she leans against its tree and rests a while.

* * *

It should be invigorating, flying for miles, being whipped from side to side by gusts of wind that make breathing difficult.

Nancy vaguely remembers when she would’ve been excited by such an extraordinary mode of transportation. While she doesn’t remember what fear feels like exactly, she’s sure she would’ve been afraid of diving into a tornado at some point in her long, long, eternal life.

Perhaps that counts. Knowing she would’ve feared something at some point in her history is almost akin to fearing it now. The memory of a now defunct emotion still involves the emotion, in a way.

* * *

Nancy once read that memories don’t exist. When remembering something, you’re actually recalling the last time you remembered it, and that chain of recall decays. That might explain why she doesn’t remember the lake the twister deposited her in, or its island.

Everyone on Earth has explored, well, everywhere on Earth. There isn’t one square-inch a human hasn’t stepped on. Nancy would’ve visited here. She’ll visit again.

Briefly, she pretends the island is someplace new: unseen, untouched. She can’t remember the last time she indulged in such fantasy. At least, she can’t remember the last time she tried to remember.

* * *

Special memories don’t deteriorate.

Nancy remembers with near-perfect clarity the soothing glow of Grandpa’s “GO BROWNS” light, the satisfaction on her daughter’s face when she perfectly lined up canned goods on the store’s shelves, the first time she felt proud enough of her art to hang it on the wall.

She dries the football on her shirt once she’s on land, not airborne, not swimming to shore.

That’s something that’ll never fade either: the thrill of the game. That feeling leads her, means she isn’t aimless. If she didn’t have that…

For a moment, Nancy remembers what fear feels like.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Podfic: 'An island of time' by TonicHoliday](https://archiveofourown.org/works/29219616) by [peasina](https://archiveofourown.org/users/peasina/pseuds/peasina)




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